#31Nails2014 Day 8: French

Hello everyone!

For Day 8 in the 31 Day Challenge, I chose to use an old glitter french form 2012. I used Accessorize "Dream". You can read more and see more photos here.

Sorry about making many blog posts today, but I have too many swatches and old nail art that I should have showed you a long time ago.

Lani

#31Nails2014 Day 7: Black and White - 2 - Flowers

Hello everyone!

My second black and white mani for Day 7 in the 31 Day challenge (#31Nails2014)  was made back in January, and finally I'm making a blog post about it.

I painted my nails white with IsaDora #603 Tip White (which is cruelty- free), top coated, and stamped the flowers on with Konad SP Black and two stamping plates from MoYou London; Pro Collection 07 (small) and 14 (XL).

Because of my small nail beds, I often have to buy the same image in both XL to fit my thumbs and in small to look good on the other nails. It's a little frustrating economically, but here it also gave me the opportunity to mix up the images so that I got the variation I wanted on the nails.

I don't remember if I used a top coat. I usually do. But because of the low winter light outside, I've probably had to use the Ott- lite, and then the manis look matte on the photos... Do you have any god suggestions for winter photography?

Lani

52 Week PICK N MIX Challenge Week 1: Teal & ‪#‎31Nails2014‬: Day 6: Inspired by a NAILS cover

Hello everyone!

This nail art was inspired by the NAILS cover of the October 2012 Issue. I made this for day 6 in Nails Magazine's 31 Days of Nail Art Challenge 2014 ‪(#‎31nails2014‬) back in January. But because I haven't showed it here on the blog yet, and because "teal" is one of the prompts for week 1 in the new 52 week challenge, I'm writing about both today. First I'll tell a little about the new challenge, and then about trying to solve the task for #‎31nails2014 Day 6, which should be inspired by a NAILS cover. And at the end of the post you can see what everyone made for week 1 if you click on the Inlinkz Link Up. I'll also link to the #31Nails2014 nail art I've made so far.

The 52 Week PICK N MIX Challenge #52WPNMC consists of two prompts each week for a year, and we can make one of them or both or combine them. Needless to say, I'll probably not be able to make nail art and blog about it every week, but I'll do it when I can. This week I chose to do "teal", and next week I hope to do both a pattern and a color. But most weeks I'll probably do a combination. If you want to find out more, you can read what the creator of this challenge writes. Just click here.

‎31nails2014‬: Day 6: Inspired by a NAILS cover:

I struggled with this challenge. First I tried to make the baby blue to white gradient, and stamp a puzzle pattern over it, but apparently my sponge had dust on it... Then I tried to make caviar nails... And some other things happened. So a week of valuable time was lost. Then I got stuck on day 6, although I had made the ombre nails a week earlier. Finally on Friday I tried the "blue and green spray on water/ spotted nails", and it looked horrible in my Ott- Lite and indoor lighting. I wish we had more daylight in winter, so that I could make more challenges per day. And I struggled taking pictures in indoor lighting/ with an Ott- Lite without making the polish looking matte.

What I did & how it was supposed to be done:

This manicure is inspired by the OCTOBER 2012 ISSUE NAILS cover. After I made this nail art and applied a second coat of Seche Vite, I found out how it can be done, and a bigger picture of the cover nail art... Lol. Here is a picture tutorial. I used regular nail polish, and used different techniques back and forth until it looked a bit like the original manicure.

As MaeLing Parrish does in her tutorial, I started with a random pattern, but I used blues and greens. Then I stamped with blue stamping polish and Messy Mansion MM02. I saw that I had too much contrast, and tried to darken the light areas and to lighten the dark areas. To do that, I turned the plate into a palette by turning it, and used a dotting tool and some sheer polishes; a blue jelly, green flakie and blue flakie. And then I felt it needed more green. If you compare my manicure to the tiny little picture that I tried to copy, this doesn't look that bad.

Products used:

Christian Dior #489 Cobalt and here
Yes Love: F23
MI-NY: #177 Blue Sky
Gosh: #540 Ocean
Gosh: #618 Tilted Blue
Essence: #02 I'm backstage
Ruby Kisses: MNP29 Blue Ray Drama
Konad: SP Blue
Messy Mansion: MM02 (stamping plate & pallette) (used many many times)
XL stamper
Dotting tool
H&M: Blue Wave
Lilypad Lacquer: Blueberry (blue jelly)
Nfu- Oh: #56 (green flakie in green jelly)
Nfu- Oh: #52 (blue flakie in blurple jelly)
And as usual back then: IsaDora #600 Clear as base coat and Seche Vite top coat.

After the stamping I saw that I needed to make some changes, so I ended up using a lot of colors. I hope I have remembered all of them. If I do this again I now know which ones that worked best, so the list will be shorter.

In January one of my goals was to do this 31 Day Challenge. I did the nail art for some of the days, and we were allowed to use old nail art, so I didn't have many left to do. But I only made a few blog posts about them. I hope to show the rest before the year is over. You can see the ones I've made so far in my facebook photo album.

Lani

An InLinkz Link-up

Love is Love - Pastel Rainbow Hearts- Valentines Day nails #8, NPC's Valentine's Day Nail Art Challenge, and #31Nails2014 Day 19 Rainbow

Hello everyone!

I was invited to Nail Polish Canada's Valentine's Day nail art challenge! :-) You can vote for me here by choosing my blog url; nailphotosbylani. I've already seen some very beautiful entries, so I don't think I can win, but I do have many hearts on my tiny nails. Lol! How many hearts do you see?

I must admit that I was inspired by the discrimination against homosexuals and lesbians, that happen many places, but that we've heard so much about now before the Olympics. I think people should be treated with respect no matter who they happen to fall in love with. Love is Love.

Rainbow nails was one of the challenges in the 31 day challenge I tried to do in January. So now that I've finally done day 19, I only have 5 manicures to do for NAILS Magazine's #31Nails2014 Challenge! Sadly, I have only showed a few here on the blog. But if you are on facebook, you can see my #31Nails2014 photo album. I will also share them on Instagram soon. Please follow me on Instagram! Btw, have you seen that NAILS Magazine now have a new 31 day nail art challenge for February?

This manicure was also made for the Sunday challenge in the facebook group Adventures In Stamping. I've never made a manicure for 3 challenges before. :-)

And also I have my own Valentine's Day nails series. This is number 8. I've included links to the ones I've made so far at the end of this post.

PRODUCTS USED:

Duri Rejuvacote (as base coat)

Pastels:
Nailstation: Guimauve (pink)
Nailstation: Agrume (orange)
Nailstation: Lightening Lemon (yellow)
Mi-Ny: #56 Klimt (green)
Nailstation: Gomme (blue) -used here in NPC Holiday Challenge
Gina Tricot: #47 Lilac me (indigo/ blue purple)
Linda Johansen: Violetta (violet/ red purple)

Sponge & dotting tool (for the gradient)
Messy Mansion: MM31 (stamping plate & palette)
Konad: SN White
Purple rectangular stamper
XL stamper (for the thumb)
Seche Vite


Nailstation, Mi-Ny and Linda Johansen are cruelty- free. I thought Gina Tricot was cruelty- free too, but now I couldn't get it confirmed...


I bought Nailstation, Linda Johansen, and the XL stamper from Norway Nails - The purple rectangular stamper, and MM31 from Messy Mansion.

WHAT I DID:

I used all the pastels horizontally on my thumb. On the other fingers I tried to make a diagonal pastel rainbow gradient; Index: pink, orange. Middle finger: orange, yellow, green. Ring finger: green, blue, indigo. Pinkie: indigo, violet. And then I stamped white over it with my new absolutely gorgeous Valentines stamping plate MM31 from Messy Mansion.

Click to enlarge

MM31:

I really love this stamping plate. The designs are awesome, and as you see, the images are so detailed that I can use them even though I have tiny nails that are very short, and the full nail image size is big (2,2 x 1,7 cm). So thank you Messy Mansion for making a stamping plate for all nail sizes!

STAMPERS:

It's also the first time I use a rectangular stamper. It was soft, but not as soft as the XL stamper, but easier to position, and the purple surface made it easier to see the white stamping polish. I also tried my new purple replacement head for the XL stamper, but it was harder than I had expected, and I couldn't make it work. So I guess I have to prime it. And it's the first time I use Duri Rejuvacote. After reading about it on the Messy Mansion web site, I really hope to get healthier and stronger nails. That, and using gloves when doing the dishes and housework, will hopefully prevent them from breaking so that I can get long nails again...

MY VALENTINE'S DAY NAILS:

Valentine's Day nails 1: Heart of a Vampire
Valentine's Day nails 2: Purple holo with red hearts
Valentine's Day nails 3: Black holo+ holo glitter+ black hearts
Valentine's Day nails 4: Black/ white rhinestone hearts+ 3 Halo Hues
Valentine's Day nails 5: Hearts with Sweet Dreams
Valentine's Day nails 6: Hearts with Gold and Raindrops
Valentine's Day nails 7: Black Hearts & Sparkling Venus


Lani

Nails Magazine's 31 Days of Nail Art Challenge (#31Nails2014): #1 2014

Hello everyone!

I made this for Day #1 in Nails Magazine's 31 Days of Nail Art Challenge for January 2014. And you can see all the themes on the poster below, (after a few more photos). The theme for day 1 is 2014, and I hope you can read that on my nails too. Lol!

On my screen, the photos taken outside look a little too blue. In real life the color of the nail art looks more like you see it in the first photo and the photo below. I love these two polishes, and in my opinion they go really well together because of the glitter and the tiny glass flecks. (You can click on the photos to enlarge them.) The purple polish has blue, and the other one has white tiny glass flecks.

They are from the same Picture Polish collection, and I think I bought them in November 2013. Maybe I love them even more because they both are made by bloggers together with Picture Polish; the purple Imperial with The Swatchaholic, and Douceur with Tartofraises/ Cutenails. Just click on the links below to read their thoughts about their own collaboration polishes.

I was inspired by this tutorial made by Collette/ My Simple Little Pleasures, and how she used a needle to turn dots into hearts. After applying a third coat of Picture Polish: Douceur, while still wet, I put dots of Picture Polish: Imperial on one nail, and found my needle and used the drag marble technique to make each number. On the thumb I stamped the text from Messy Mansion MM02 with Konad SP: Violet Pearl, and then painted over the text with a brush dipped in Imperial. My pinkie nail is broken, so I had to use a fake nail here.

Click to enlarge

Because I found out about the challenge after it already had started, I don't know if I'll be able to make all the manicures during this month. But because we are allowed to use old photos, I have about 16 manis I can use. We are supposed to share each challenge mani on Instagram, but I have to figure out how that works first. I think I'll share every challenge day here on the blog, although it will be boring for those of you who have seen all my manis, but I think I'll just show the photo and link to the actual blog post. And we can also save time by making one mani for several challenge days.

For short, I'll use the suggested hashtag "#31Nails2014" as headline for my posts during the challenge.

Products used:

Picture Polish: Douceur by Tartofraises /Cutenails (nearly white pink)
Picture Polish: Imperial by The Swatchaholic (purple)
Needle
Dotting tool
Konad SP: Violet Pearl (purple)
XL stamper
Stamping plate: Messy Mansion: MM02
Small brush
Pallette

And now I hope to write one more blog post to catch up...

Are you participating in this challenge?


Lani